Woodstock

Toaday is a Wednesday. I know that for sure because today was the day I managed to book a visit to the newly re-opened tip. So yesterday must have been Tuesday, and after a break over the BH weekend I sauntered down to Woodstock armed only with a waggler rod, and settled on peg 28

I fed a longish pole line, maybe 16m, and fished over with a 3BB Billy Makin Canal Grey and a size 18 B560 to 0.12. Yep, a real blast from the past, easily 40 years old, but that just happened to be the float set up on my stillwater waggler rod. Groundbait was Sensas Magic, Thatchers Dark, Red Pastoncino and a small amount of TDS, and I followed up on three balls of this packed with dead reds, some chopped worm and corn by loose feeding caster over the top and plus the odd small ball of groundbait via a cattie.

I took a fairly early big Skimmer at about 12oz but then struggled for a bit. But slowly the swim started to build, stockie F1s were a bit of a nuisance, as was a bootlace Eel at one stage, but in between the noise I put together 5 proper Bream to 3Lbs+ and 5 decent Skimmers pushing 2 Lbs apiece, so a comfortable 20Lbs+ excluding the C**p. A lovely session on the float rod, the only downside was a proper C**p hooked on my last cast which ended up with me losing my only BM Canal Grey in that size. Totally irreplaceable, end of an era.

The next day was warmer again, so I opted for the same swim (good tree cover), but this time with a small cage feeder at 22 turns. Groundbait and hookbaits were essentially the same as on Tuesday. And they do say you should never return to a good peg the next day, because the overall response was disappointing. One proper Bream, two small Skimmers and a lot of annoying F1s. Line bites were a real issue on a day when most of the fish were more interested in cruising around than feeding. But I was out on the bank and fishing, so that’s OK.

Close Season update

It’s only when I checked my calendar just now that I realised that today should have been the second day of the 2 Counties Festival on Tamar Lakes. Would have been lovely too with the weather warming up again just in time but sadly, of course, yet another victim of the Covid-19 pandemic. To add context, the Inniscarra Torist Board announced yesterday that they were cancelling all events for 2020. That is a big deal when the whole economy of Coachford and the local area revolves around a string of 3 Day Festivals either side of summer.

But checking my calendar also had a positive outcome as well, because it told me that today is D-Day -23. All of a sudden it feels as if the River Season is almost upon us. So, suitably enthused, I set about some tackle preparation. 6g Bolos for fishing punched meat for those Belmont Chub?? 4g Colmic flatties to lay on with worm and caster for those Brizzie Avon slabs?? Small Colmic Jollys patiently balanced with closely spread No.7 styls to catch stamp Roach??………err……..No, No and No. In truth, as I still have a few weeks at least of stillwater fishing before I can hit running water, I decided that I might as well have some decent rigs to fish with, so I ended up rigging up a mixture of hand-made Drennan Lake copies, some Dino Bulbos and some wire-stemmed Daiwa pencils plus a few bomb-proof Maver margin-floats.

I’d love to be able to push on and start going through both my running line and pole river rigs to ensure that they are ready for the off. But the problem is that I’m still not sure what the ‘off’ looks like, or even when the ‘off’ is. Over the border in England the majority, if not all the waters, are now open. Many of the commercial venues are openly advertising matches, and the use of keepnets now appears to be the norm for pleasure fishing. So there is a strong likelihood that this will extend to the river venues as of the 16th June. But I cannot be certain, as there may be stronger ‘allegiance’ to the AT amongst the river angling fraternity. And personally, if I were the AT I would be mightily cheesed off with the abuse they have takeen from some quarters, and the current blatant disregard for their advice. But they are now boxed in, they can hardly now backtrack without a significant change in Government guidelines which clearly allows for match fishing.

The second buggeration factor is that as a resident of Wales I an currently not allowed to travel past my local waters, and there is no guarantee that this next week will see any significant relaxation of that restriction. The average R-rate in Wales is higher than the average in England, so I find it hard to be overly-critical of a more conservative approach, there are more important condsiderations in life than whether I can fish the Glossie or not.

So I am left with quite an involved ‘decision tree’:-

• Do current or future Government guidleines allow the AT to endorse match fishing? i.e. will Riverfest take place?
• If not, will other organisation still proceed with running matches? i.e., will the Severn Float League, Evesham and Staverton take place?
• Will current Welsh Government guidelines allow me to travel across the border to participate in matches in England?
• Will match organisers be able to deal with entry/pools, peg draws, weighing in and results in such a way as I do not feel that fishing the match puts me at additional risk? (from what I’ve heard and seen, the answer is probably yes).
• If match fishing is based on remote draws and very limited or no social interaction before or after the event, do I want to participate?

To be honest, I’m probably struggling with the last question more than any of the others, because I doubt if even the best or most successful of us can reasonably expect to do any more than offset our match fishing costs over the course of a season, so it has to be about the competitive aspects and the social interactions between friends and rivals. The competitive element would be preserved, but would the pleasure of winning be somewhat diminished when that only becomes evident by way of a FB communique later in the day? And the breakfast/banter/abuse/draw/more abuse/presentation/drinks/banter/more abuse elements which are such such an integral part of the process would be almost entirely lost in a real time sense.

It is quite possible that, by this time next week, I will have a much clearer view on questions 1-4 and will maybe have to make at least some decision on the final question. Watch this space!!

Woodstock

Back to the Bettws ponds on the Thursday, and a rare outing on Woodstock. When I first restarted 7 years ago this was a decent F1 water, and I had some decent sessions on the method feeder and on the pole with paste. But then it was badly affected by KHV, and afterwards it became evident that human predators had removed a significant number of fish, forcing the club to have to fence the whole complex before restocking. As I’d lost interest in C**p fishing anyway, my more recent attention has been almost exclusively on Morgan’s and its Bream shoals. But faced with the prospect of limited choices over the next few weeks at least, and wanting to fish the pole rather than the tip, I decided to give it a whirl.

I was advised to set up on peg 26 and fish two lines. One at 11m straight out, and the other on 5 sections to my right, just past some pandocks. So I cupped in a half pot of dead reds and groundbait short, and starting loose feeding a couple of grains of corn over the top. On the 11m line I cupped in a big pot of groundbait then a half pot of caster.

I kicked off long but failed to get any response, so I dropped in short instead with double dead red. That got me a pair of eyes with a tail! So I switched to corn and, once I’d got my eye in, I started to catch a few F1s. After about 4 or 5 of these, ranging between stockies and more mature fish up to 1Lb, I hooked something a bit different which turned out to be a 2Lb+ Bream. I managed to pull out of what I’m convinced was a second Bream, then lost a few F1s which flattened the swim a bit.

Switching long got me a few more F1s and, eventually, a second Bream, but again the fish backed off from the disturbance, so I switched back inside for some more F1s and a third Bream. All in all, 20 or so F1s and 3 Bream, not amazing but not a disaster either given the hot, still conditions. And I’d topped up my sunburn quite nicely. I might even pop down next week and give the waggler a run out, it can respond quite well to that sometimes.

Peterstone Lakes

AKA Escape from Lockdown – Day 2. Today’s plan was to evaluate the South Western escape route, i.e. along Lighthouse Road. I rocked up and handed over my £8, then pushed my gear up from the carpark. My first impression of the Pencil Lake was that it was clearer than I expected but also a sort of sickly blue colour (I later discovered that this is due to an anti-algae agent being used) Other than that it looked OK with well maintained fishing pitches. I ended up walking up to the bowl area at the top and pitchec up facing back towards the larger of the two islands.

No feeder work today, I wanted to watch a float for change. So I set up with a double-bulked 0.5g rig and a size 16 B560 to 0.12. I was targetting the reputedly large Bream and Skimmers, so I rolled in 4 balls of sweet fishmeal groundbait then cupped in some caster and corn over the top. I dropped in with double dead red and fully expected the float to sail away pretty much straight away. It didn’t! In fact, nothing much really happened for a long time, but then I did have a proper bite and hooked into a decent slab, probably 5Lbs +. Result! Game on! Short wait until my next bite, another slab…….hang on, nope, a C**p!! I was fortunate enough to pull out of that, but when I dropped back in I had to wait quite a while for a response. A switch to double caster got me a lovely slide-away bite and the characteristic slow run of a decent Bream. Lovely. Oh, hang on……feels more like an Eel now. And, sure enough, it was an Eel, a f**king big b*****d of an Eel, 2 maybe 3Lbs and definitely my PB. It was actually quite an attractive fish, silver raher than green and with a decent sized head and mouth. I’d also lip hooked it, which is always nice. Soon after, another fish on double caster, obviously a small C**p which buried me in the weed so I skull-dragged it out, and then it mysteriously turned into a 3Lbs Tench. Pleased with that, because I would have to trawl back quite a way in these blogs to find my last Tinca.

But that was about it for my ‘Skimmer’ line, and it was seriously scorchio by now. Sadly, I have to confess that in order to alleviate the boredom, I prostituted myself totally and fished for C**p next to the reeds. I cupped in a big pot of dead reds followed by some groundbait, loose fed corn over the top and lashed together a margin style rig using with an 8 latex top (the heaviest I had!!). I’d just finished speaking to Ivan Currie on the phone when I finally got a proper bite, and after a bit of a tussle I managed to net an 8-10Lb C**p. It was actually quite exhilerating in a seat of your pants sort of way, but I promise it will remain a very rare transgression.

By about 4pm I was done to a crisp and chucked back. A Bream, an Eel, a Tinca, 2 Rudd, 2 Perch and a Roach. Plus of course the C**p which had gone straight back, so a Full House then. I may have another go down there, but I’ll wait for more Bream-centric conditions and hopefully a quieter complex once the current post-lockdown novelty has worn off.

Morgan’s Pool

Notice, not Lockdown Day 58…..On Monday of last week the Welsh Government ‘relaxed’ their lockdown rules by allowing citizens to exercise more than once a day. WTF?? I don’t exercise once a year, let alone once per day. At the same time, they simultaneously tightened the travelling requirement so that exercise had to start and end at your front door. Which at the time slightly failed the ‘so what?’ test. But then on Wednesday they stated that angling was an outdoors recreational activity and should be encouraged to prevent us from all turning into mass murderers. But, of course, you had to start and end at your front door. In other words, you could fish, but had to walk or cycle to the venue……….

To their credit, Angling Cymru did revert to the Welsh Government and point out that the majority of anglers these days would be hard pressed to walk to the end of their drive pushing their gear, let alone their local venue. After no small amount of confusion, partly fuelled by the BBC, NRW and some senior Police Officers holding an apposite view, eventually by Monday just past it became universally accepted that it was OK to drive locally to fish. And, to be fair (again) to Angling Cymru, their directions were quite specific. You could drive but only to your local venue. You should not drive past another venue to get to your favourite venue.

That left me in a fairly privileged position. From my house, if I go West along Lighthouse Road the first venue is Peterstone Lakes. Or I can still go West but along the A48 which brings me to Hendre Lake (currently shut) or if I turn off right Cefn Mably Lakes. And if I head East along the M4 I then come to the Newport AA ponds at Bettws. And if I headed North I would be passing the Pontymister Canal (in case anyone is wondering, if I turn South I drown. Lighthouse Road is a clue). So it sort of works well, because these would be my venue choices in a non-Covid-19 world.

Faced with such a wealth of options, I naturally headed off to the cheapest option which was actually open, i.e. the Newport ponds, specifically Morgans. Access via the pedestrian gate only, fishing from even numbered pegs only. Fair enough. Although neither lake was particularly busy, the peg restriction meant that when I got to Morgans I had to continue round and eventually drop in on peg 6, someway away from my favoured pegs, which are 16, 15 and….err….that’s it actually 15 or 16. But peg 6 has the much needed pandocks to its right, so I set to it on the tip with a 4 square Drennan gripmesh and corn on a size 12 Tubertini series 18 to 0.12, i.e. basically business as usual. The only slight deviation was the corn. Double or triple dead red would have been my first choice but I’d managed to grab a bag of dead pinkies not dead reds. In my defence, I actually had everything else I needed, which is amazing giving the lay-off.

Third chuck I managed to miss a proper take on the corn (ring rusty? just plain stupid? Discuss…) and then a few casts later I had a proper straight rodder and when I picked up I’d been smashed. So, excellent start. After that it was r..e…a…l…l..y s…l…o…w…and it was probably just as well that I was enjoying the novelty of being out and fishing. Now I have something of a hate-tolerate relationship with corn. I’ve actually caught a lot of fish on Hendre using it, but I’ve never had much, if any, success at Morgans, or most other venues for that matter. And please never ask me about the Wye. So I switched from corn to double caster which at least got me a small Roach, so a fish in the (virtual) net.

But the caster wasn’t overwhelming either, so I switched to a tipped dendra. Different world. Two decent Bream back to back, a pause while they regrouped, then another pair back to back, then a further seven, plus two Skimmers over the space of the next 2 hours or so. So 11 proper Bream including a couple of the old black ones, probably pushing 30Lbs, decent’ish sort of day out. No catch shot of course, no keepnets allowed at the moment. I had hoped if I released each Bream carefully by the platform that they might hang around until the end so that I could get a photo, but no chance. And, before you ask, I’m fairly certain that I did catch at least 10 different fish, but there was one that may have sneaked in twice.

Long way to go yet, both in terms of the UK and regional response to the pandemic (fuck up is the term that springs to mind) and angling, where I have to consider both the progression in England wrt matches being allowed, and the progression in Wales wrt being able to drive far enough to participate in said matches. We shall see!

Lockdown…..Day 52

Or, at least, Day 52 if today is Wednesday. I think it is, I could probably check but I can’t be bothered. Let’s assume it is Wednesday and get on with our lives.

I have now completed the downstairs internal doors (actually this is a lie. I haven’t done the inside of the downstairs toilet door, or the inside of the hall cupboard door. My bad….), and I have repainted the stairs. The stairs promised to be a bit of a bastard, but I was wrong………they were a total bastard. But they’re finished, and my Herculean tasks are drawing to a close. Bit of fence left to paint, the front doorframe, kitchen window-sill. I’ll need the weather to warm up a bit before I tackle these, but they will be completed soon. That leaves me with only two big issues. I can’t get my hair cut, and before you ask, I have no desire to go down the home clippers route and end up looking as if I’ve just been released from a Turkish prison, and the tip is closed, which means I have about three carloads of rubbish getting in my way at the moment.

Oh yes, sorry! Three big issues, there remains the problem of not being able to fish. Well, as I alluded to last week, all eyes were on Boris and his presidential address last Sunday. Bizzarly, both Nicola, Mark and Arlene rather jumped the gun somewhat and had already declared no change in lockdown restrictions pending further review on 28th May. Then along comes Boris and, without so much as a mention that most of his address dealt with England rather than the UK, proceeded to change the fundamental message so as to encourage the populace to return to work where they could, and in so doing send out all sorts of contradictory and confusing messages. But somewhere in the address was confirmation that angling was to be considered a legitimate form of exercise/recreation w.e.f. today, and with no restrictions on travelling to undertake said recreation. However, this relaxation did not apply to Wales. But then yesterday the Wales Government also declared Golf and Angling to be recreational activities that could allow you to legitimately leave the house. The only fly in the ointment was their recent tightening of restrictions such that you could not drive in order to undertake exercise. In other words, angling was allowed but only if you walk or cycle to the venue. It is fairly obvious that their mental picture of the sport of angling is based on Mr.Crabtree books, not today’s reality. But then there is a loophole wherein those with underlying health or mobility issues can drive as long as they stay local. And anyone who has ever seen me trying to barrow my kit around would immediately conclude that I have underlying health and mobility issues!!!

So, currently, Angling Cymru have approached the Welsh Government to ask whether we could possibly drive to local venues, which might help to avoid the inevitable upsurge in excess mortalities caused by us pushing our gear, which would be far in excess of those from Covid-19. I am awaiting feedback on this, and also of course on whether any local venues are actually going to open up at this point. Plus an upddate on when the tip reopens would be nice, because my car is full of rubbish at the moment.

Lockdown….Day 45

So, let me recap………walls tiled 1, floors tiled 1 (and a bit), walls painted 7, doors painted 6 (including a garage door), lights fitted 3, garages cleared 1, tackle preparation completed……….err……….0.

I am very nearly at the stage of DIY job creation. Yes, the internal doors look better with a fresh coat of paint, but I could probably have lived with them. Now, I cannot handle gloss paint indoors. I only have to open the tin and I’ve got a banging headache followed by a sore throat. And its really not a good idea to induce two of the main symptoms of Covid-19 smack bang in the middle of the pandemic. So as an experiment, instead of satinwood which I have used in the past but not particularly liked, I decided to go with eggshell. Self-undercoating….tick, stays white……tick. What they don’t mention is that it feels as if you’re painting your doors with drinking yoghurt, or what my Dutch friends would call karne melk. But it’s OK in a sort of ‘I see you’ve undercoated your doors but when are you going to gloss them?’ sort of way. But this artificial extension to the DIY job list is fairly short-lived, and I am rapidly coming to the crunch point where I cannot afford/cannot face any more DIY for now.

And when I reach that end point I will join the hoards of frustrated anglers who are all desperate for some sign as to when we can get out on the banks again. Most of Europe has now relaxed their restrictions to some extent and are allowing angling but generally not competitions. There are obvious issues within the UK, which has clearly peaked in terms of new infections in the community but has just achieved the rather undesirable status of having experienced the highest number of fatalities in Europe, with ongoing levels remaining high due, in the main, to deaths within Care Homes. The UK Government are not saying anything specific but both of the devolved administrations seem to be hinting at some continuation of the current regime before some relaxation towards the end of May. But even then, if the new conditions restrict travelling distance and time outside the house, then we still remain short of the position that would allow even pleasure angling. Matchfishing is obviously impacted over a much longer timeframe and I now suspect that the summer natural venue angling calendar (for me, Evesham, some Riverfest, Severn Float League) will be disrupted to the point where they are not viable.

But, over to Boris on Sunday to throw some more light on the subject. Stay safe!